Reviewing The Building Site

Noon:

Met Garret, Dan, Martin, and Tommy Wood (concrete contractor) at site. Dan said he wants to keep site as high as possible. Dan reviewed septic system drain field, design, location, and elevation. He was concerned about NW corner of drain field being too close to property line but he thought he could make it fit. Dan & Martin moved a little more dirt from north mound to the driveway before they left. Dan & Martin will return Monday 8/26 to finish moving the north mound dirt and begin digging foundation trench. Tommy will return Wednesday, 8/28, to begin placing batter boards to form foundation.

Moving Dirt On The Driveway

Marking The Rough Layout

Morning:

Today Gary, Lani, and Garret met up on the property at 8 AM and started laying out the floor plan in orange paint on the scraped off south moraine. After getting a rough drawing of the plans sketched out in the dirt and marked with stakes and flags, Garrett left for the rest of the day.

Initial Site Plan: The Three Red Painted Boulders Mark The Center Line

Looking East

Looking West

Afternoon

Gary and Lani met at 1 o'clock with Dan and Martin to explain the layout markings and provide instructions for cutting away the parts of the second hill of the moraine.

Martin dug enough dirt out of the front of the hill to form a road for the dump truck to use from the driveway to the hill

Later Martin cleared the brush from the second hill. Most of the trees were removed to make room for the septic system and drainage field:

A big cedar was removed to make way for the septic system	Vegetation from the back side of the hill was added to the burn pile
Large stumps and logs were cut up for ease of handling	Much wood was saved away from the burn pile for use as firewood

A nice large cedar and hemlock tree were designated for saving:

Looking Toward Second Mound of Dirt For More Fill

Morning:

Gary, Lani, Garret, and Dan met at the property in the morning to draw the preliminary layout of the house footprint on the ground. We ended up discussing progress on readying the site for the foundation.

Dan And Garret Discussing The Plan While Lani Looks On:

There are two competing concerns: whether the cut is low enough to fit the foundation on the moraine without requiring excessive fill, and whether the cut is high enough to provide the necessary elevation to support the gravity feed septic system design. Garret decided that in order to lay out the footprint he would need better measurements than are shown on the drawings. He decided to go home and calculate some new angles and distances that will help us lay out the preliminary footprint tomorrow.

It was also decided that the current arbitrary cut would be left alone until the position of the septic drain field is established. Dan was concerned about the amount of fill still needed. Gary pointed out that the north hill of the moraine contains a lot of the same structural fill that the first knob did and that it is available for use, providing some of the good trees are saved.

North Hill Of Moraine Shown Looking North From Wetland Buffer Area:

Leveling The House Site

All Day:

After meeting with Clallam Title Company and Washington Federal to sign the escrow and loan papers, Gary and Lani went to the property to check on the work progress and found that the first knob of the moraine had been completely leveled west onto the saddle, past the largest lawn-ornament boulder.

The west end of the building site showing beginning cut into second hill:

Two shots of the building site: September 2012 on Left, August 2013 on Right

The driveway has been raised about 6 feet from the lowest level to the northeast. It was surprising to see how low the northeast corner of the property is now that structural dirt from the moraine has been moved. You can see the quality of the sand and gravel comprising the driveway versus the vegetative laced duff that was scraped off the top and is now lying in a darker pile to the north.

This shot looking east shows the build up done to bring the level of the driveway close to that of the house slab.

The following video shows how structural fill is moved from the moraine to the driveway and then leveled. During the project, this repetitious activity has raised the driveway nearly 6 feet.